Unless you're a real grinch, your end-of-year viewing probably features plenty of red, white, snow, presents, eggnog and Santa. Elf, Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas — you get the idea. Sure, you've seen Will Ferrell take on the festive season before. And, you've seen Macaulay Culkin take on a pair of robbers too. But if you haven't seen them on a 44-metre-long outdoor screen, have you really seen them? Big Screen on the Green, Brisbane's mammoth movie-viewing option, is getting into the spirit of the season with a heap of festive flicks. From Monday, December 16 until Thursday, December 19, it'll project something merry every night. All of the above titles are featured, plus The Polar Express too. The best part, other than the sack full of nostalgia? Entry is via gold coin donation, so it's a very cheap night at the movies. If you register in advance you'll also get a free frozen Fanta — or you can upgrade to a heap of packages from $10, which includes boozy beverage and a popcorn. The $55 option for two comes with prawns, a charcuterie platter, mini cakes and fruit, while the $85 ramps up the decadent feast, including a soft Christmas meringue. You can also rent picnic blankets for $12 and bean bags for $8. Doors open at 5.30pm each night, with the films starting at 7pm.
Everybody likes putting things on walls. Particularly pretty things, and particularly well-designed things. Better still, the people at Ferm Living are now making removable vinyl wall stickers designed to adorn your home, which are also functional and educational. The products are designed in Denmark and made in Europe, so they have that lovely Nordic well-designed glow. The stickers can be either decorative or functional. If it's winter and the birds have stopped singing, put a flock up by the window to remind you spring is coming, or if you're longing for the forest, put up some tree trunks. The calendars come with their own sets of post-it notes and chalk, so you can wipe them down and begin again fresh next month, the to-do lists make the task of being organised neater and easier to access, and the period tables can provide your bedroom with that chemistry lab atmosphere it's been so sadly lacking. And while their map probably won't help you find Azerbaijan or help you figure out how many countries the Danube runs through, at least it provides a reference point for discussing current affairs when you bring home someone lovely of an evening. https://youtube.com/watch?v=zWoDOUE2X58 [Via Cool Hunting]
It's the moment that many a price-conscious Australian fashionista has been hoping for — the opening of our very own H&M. Yes, right here, Down Under, we'll soon be able to indulge in the highly trendy yet easy-on-the-budget range that shoppers across five continents have been enjoying for seasons. The store, to be launched during the first few months of 2014, will be occupying a space in Melbourne's illustrious 150-year-old GPO building. With 5,000 square metres of area and three floors, it will be a full concept flagship number, as well as one of the most expansive H&M shops to be found anywhere on the planet. What's that sound I hear? Your bank account heaving an enormous sigh? "We are very excited to announce that we will be opening the first H&M store in Melbourne, Australia during 2014," commented Hans Andersson, country manager for H&M Australia. "We look forward to bringing fashion and quality at the best price to Australian customers." Watch this space for more launch news.
Is it possible to make a heist movie that's inspired by detective fiction but takes some cues from reality, including riffing on the director's own mother's experiences and her work as a filmmaker? Then, can such a flick become a charming crime caper that's effortlessly fresh and oh-so French, and yet also could've been made during both the French New Wave and American cinema's glorious 70s era? With his latest feature The Innocent, consider actor, writer and helmer Louis Garrel 100-percent guilty. Consider the film itself an utter delight, too. And, consider it gorgeously shot (by César-nominated Les Misérables cinematographer Julien Poupard), smartly penned (by Garrel, gumshoe novelist Tanguy Viel and Garrel's The Crusade co-screenwriter Naïla Guiguet) and winningly cast, with the latter including Little Women's Garrel himself opposite Portrait of a Lady on Fire's Noémie Merlant, plus Roschdy Zem (Other People's Children) and Anouk Grinberg (The Night of the 12th). Actually, in his fourth stint as an actor-turned-filmmaker following 2015's Two Friends, 2018's A Faithful Man and 2021's The Crusade, Garrel hasn't just assembled a stellar core quartet of actors. In addition to that, he has them anchoring a movie that overtly explores the role of acting in everyday life. Sylvie Lefranc (Grinberg) is a theatre thespian and teacher, as initially observed showing imprisoned men the tricks of the board-treading trade. In her class is Michel Ferrand (Zem), who she swiftly marries — with Sylvie's thirtysomething son Abel in attendance but hardly approving, especially because this isn't her first set of jailhouse nuptials. He's worried about his mom and suspicious about his new stepdad, which gives him a distraction from grieving for his recently deceased wife and hearing about her best friend Clémence Genièvre's (Merlant) tumultuous love life. He knows that Sylvie's head-over-heels infatuation isn't a performance, but is the just-released Michel's claim that he's now on the straight and narrow all for show? To answer that question, Abel gets a-tailing throughout Lyon with the game and eager Clémence's help. This couldn't be a heist film if they found nothing amiss, of course, with ex-con Michel's plans linked in with the cute little florist shop he's opened to make Sylvie's dreams come true — claiming that a friend had rented them the space for free, which is obviously far too good to be accurate. So, Abel is faced with his own spate of acting to protect his mum. Michel can't do the job without assistance from him and Clémence playing decoys, and his mother will suffer if he doesn't aid and abet an armed robbery pilfering lucrative Iranian caviar. Yes, as well as being a heist movie, a romance, and a drama about parents, children, love, loss, moving on and second chances all in one, The Innocent is a delicious and hilarious farce. There's a clear contrast at the heart of The Innocent: women who love quickly and deeply, as Sylvie and Clémence do, and men who are hesitant and guarded, as Abel and Michel prove. In much lesser hands, that juxtaposition might be dated and cliched, not to mention needlessly and gratingly stereotypical. Thankfully, adding to the lengthy list of things that The Innocent manages to be, and breezily, it's also an intelligent, textured and savvily scripted character study. Even when they're overtly acting a part — for work, for each other and, in the widowed Abel's case, often with himself — Sylvie, Abel, Michel and Clémence are each lived in to the point of seeming ready to walk right off the screen. Crucially, every move they make is steeped in their fleshed-out stories and backgrounds, rather than mere convenience, too. Garrel, Viel and Guiguet have penned these characters with nuance, intricacy, and realistic emotions and motivations. Thoughtful touches abound around The Innocent's stars; see: Abel's job as a marine biologist at a local aquarium, where Clémence also works, which nicely stresses the difference between analysing and diving in — and also provides a dazzling setting for pivotal scenes and shots. The film makes wonderful use of Sylvie and Michel's florist in a comparable way, the space literally blooming with colour and life but its roots not what they seem. The Innocent's casting can't be underestimated, though, as particularly seen in Grinberg, Merlant and Zem's efforts. Grinberg steps into Garrel's IRL mother Brigitte Sy's shoes, given she too is an actor who got married in prison, and does so with a gregarious and yearning spark. With a sense of lightness here, Merlant keeps showing her exceptional range, boosting a growing resume that also includes Jumbo, Paris, 13th District and Tár. And Zem, a director himself — including of 2011's Oscar-shortlisted Omar Killed Me and 2016's Monsieur Chocolat — is sincere, determined and charismatic, and also helps turn a bit with a bowtie into something special. As for Garrel, he enlists himself for the fourth time as the fourth character called Abel (although in A Faithful Man and The Crusade, they're the same figure), and he's again ace under his own direction. When your godfather is Jean-Pierre Léaud, one of the faces of the French New Wave ever since starring in the movement's seminal film The 400 Blows, perhaps being drawn to spirited and soulful movies about emotional chaos just comes with the territory. Garrel keeps writing, directing and performing in them, with The Innocent his most entertaining instance yet. Cinema was always in his blood as well as his orbit, seeing that his father is French filmmaker Philippe Garrel, whose pictures he often features in (such as 2013's excellent Jealousy); Sy clearly has an acting history (including 2018's Invisibles); his sister Esther also pops up on-screen (as seen in Call Me By Your Name); and his grandfather is the late actor Maurice Garrel (César-nominated for La Discrète and Kings and Queen) — and it shows. As conveyed in celluloid dreams, heists, crime capers, mysteries and noirs frequently involve throwing an array of moving parts together in high-stakes circumstances, then seeing what fits, sticks, struggles and leaks. French greats Rififi and Bob Le Flambeur, both of which The Innocent feels tied to, knew this. US highlights The Long Goodbye and The Last of Sheila, which it similarly brings to mind, capitalised upon it as well. In all of their many guises, these narrative setups and mainstays strike a chord because they so vividly reflect life's mess, just in heightened circumstances — and Garrel is equally well-aware of that. The Innocent's French pop-synth soundtrack gifts the already fast-paced film with a marvellous sense of bounce, but also reflects exactly what the movie is: a supremely finessed, funny, endearing and engaging flick that echoes for everyone.
Everyone likes shopping and hanging out by the water, which Portside's regular markets know and understand — especially when festive season is approaching. If you really like browsing and buying, taking in the riverside air, and having a reason to stop for a bite and a drink, you'll want to head to Hamilton on Sunday, December 3. From 3–7pm, you can shop, stroll, sip and purchase gifts, which sounds like a mighty fine weekend itinerary. A heap of stalls will be offering up everything from art and plants to ceramics and accessories — and more. If you've been to markets at the Gasworks or in Fish Lane, you'll have a firm idea of what you're in for, because The Market Folk is behind all of the above and is running this Portside event as well. To give your shopping a soundtrack, there's usually piano tunes echoing through the Hamilton precinct. And, if those hunger pangs strike — or you're just keen on having a drink — the precinct has plenty of eateries onsite. Images: Claudia Baxter.
Pollution in big cities is a big problem, but thankfully there are people out there taking steps to make cities sustainable. Aluminium producer Alcoa has developed a building material which feeds on smog to clean itself and the surrounding air. Reynobond with Ecoclean is an aluminium panel coated with titanium dioxide which decomposes fumes and pollutants using sunlight as a catalyst. Only the smallest amount of rain is then required to wash away the now harmless particles. Pilot testing of the panels is taking place in Europe and North America. We all know trees have air-cleansing properties, but Alcoa claims that just under 1000 square metres of the panelling would be the equivalent to the power of 80 trees. And while the parts can be pricey, they will mean a reduction in maintenance costs for buildings. [Via Fast Company]
This Christmas, it's time to deck your halls with boughs of whichever greenery you'd like — and to give plenty of plants as gifts, too. That's on the agenda at VEND Marketplace, which is hosting an evening of Christmas Twilight Markets for the festive season. There'll be more than just succulents, cacti and indoor-friendly plants on offer; however, given that the northside spot is home to its own indoor greenhouse — aptly called the Greenhouse, naturally — that's definitely a big drawcard. Between 4–9pm on Saturday, November 30, you'll also be able to get festive at VEND's 130-plus shops, and at the array of pop-up stalls that it's setting up outside. And to keep your stomach satisfied while you're picking gifts — including for yourself — the VEND cafe will also be serving boozy beverages and Christmas dinner specials. Also, there'll be a cocktail bar. Plus, VEND is doggo-friendly — should you want to bring your four-legged pal with you for a stint of Christmas fun. (No good boy or girl wants to stay home while you're out during the merriest time of year.) Images: VEND Marketplace.
"Let's head to the casino for a nice dinner," said nobody, ever. Until recently, that is. Fat Noodle has been open in Brisbane's Treasury Casino since late 2012 and if you haven't visited yet, it's high time you got around to it. Celebrity chef Luke Nguyen — known for his SBS show Luke Nguyen's Vietnam and appearances on MasterChef — has created a dining hub where freshness and flavour are the priority. Start off the meal with a bowl of steamed edamame ($7.00) and some salt and pepper tofu ($10.00). You certainly don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy these dishes; the edamame is as moreish as a bowl of potato chips (but healthier!) and the sweet, salty taste and fried texture of the tofu will have you weak at the knees, even if you've never been a fan of the ol' bean curd. Other options on the small plates menu include salmon sashimi ($14.00), pork skewers ($12.00) and Vietnamese chicken salad ($14.00). Larger meals are broken down into the categories 'rice', 'noodle soups' and 'woks'. Luke Nguyen's signature dish is the Fat Pho Noodles — beef broth, sliced Angus sirloin and brisket, bean sprouts, fresh Thai basil, chilli and rice noodles ($18.00). However, another standout on the menu is the Singapore laksa with prawns, fish cake, scallops, chicken breast, rice noodles, tofu and egg in a rich, coconut-spiked broth ($19.00). You better be hungry before you tackle this delicious bowl of goodness, because it is absolutely packed to the brim with seafood and chicken. The prawns and broccoli with rice ($19.00) is another nice, fresh-tasting dish, although lacking the punch of the laksa (to be fair, most dishes everywhere lack the punch of the Fat Noodle laksa). If you have any trouble deciding what to order, ask for a recommendation from the wait staff. If by some miracle you are still hungry after the main course, there are a couple of dessert options available: a jasmine tea-flavoured crème brulee ($12.00) and a lemongrass and perilla leaf-infused panna cotta with pandanus and coconut sago ($12.00). The panna cotta on its own could be more flavoursome, but is delicious with the sago accompaniment. Fat Noodle has a wide selection of drinks, including draught and bottled beer, wine, fresh juices, and cocktails.
The ancient landscape of Cobbold Gorge almost seems otherworldly, with clear water cutting through the glowing orange sandstone formations. The gorge measures 30 metres wide, with sheer walls that appear to stretch endlessly above. Cobbold Gorge Village accommodation includes huts, suites and motel rooms, alongside camping and caravan sites. Guests can enjoy kayaking, aqua golf, mountain biking and stand-up paddleboarding. Or, if you feel like splurging, book a scenic helicopter flight with wine and cheese to see the sights from above. The grounds also include an infinity pool, swim-up bar and fully licensed bistro. Image: Tourism Tropical North Queensland.
A powerful Australian western that explores the country's troubled history. The world premiere of a celebratory documentary about one of the nation's most important dance companies. A food and movie event that lets audiences step into the world of truffle hunting after eating a feast of truffles. If you're a Brissie cinephile looking for a reason to abandon your streaming queue at the beginning of October, this year's Brisbane International Film Festival has plenty. The three aforementioned movies — opening night's High Ground, starring Simon Baker as a policeman navigating the aftermath of a brutal massacre of an Indigenous tribe; closing night's Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra, exploring Bangarra Dance Theatre's 30 years in operation; and Italian doco The Truffle Hunters — sit among a 70-plus film program for this year's BIFF, which is slated for Thursday, October 1–Sunday, October 11. And while some of Australia's other major film fests have run virtual events in 2020 (to huge success in Melbourne's case), Brisbane's is forging on as a physical-only affair (with COVID-19 safety measures in place, obviously). That means Brisbanites will need to head to the Gallery of Modern Art's Australian Cinémathèque, which organises the whole event, to get their festival fix — and to Dendy Coorparoo, the Elizabeth Picture Theatre, New Farm Cinemas, Reading in Newmarket and the State Library of Queensland as well. That's where movie buffs will be able to watch the latest out-there flick from Japanese auteur Sion Sono, Red Post on Escher Street; the Australian premiere of acclaimed British feature Rocks, about a rapping teenager of Nigerian heritage living in East London; Ai Weiwei's new documentary Vivos, examining the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico; and Sundance sci-fi hit Nine Days, starring Us's Winston Duke and Atlanta's Zazie Beetz. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBtoLqsv-_A&feature=emb_logo Other highlights include Pete Davidson-starring comedy Big Time Adolescence; drama Blackbird, featuring Kate Winslet, Mia Wasikowska and Susan Sarandon; Sydney-shot Aussie queer coming-of-age flick Ellie & Abbie (& Ellie's Dead Aunt); and the latest absurdist piece from Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson, About Endlessness. There's also the delightful Jumbo, starring Portrait of a Lady on Fire's Noémie Merlant as a woman in love with a theme park ride; German horror film Pelican Blood; unnerving British standout Saint Maud; and Hong Sang-soo's minimalist yet insightful The Woman Who Ran. BIFF also breaks some of its features down into thematic strands, including one on transcendence featuring Tilda Swinton-narrated sci-fi Last and First Men, another on belonging with dive bar hangout doco Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, and yet another about homecomings with includes Gold Coast-made horror-comedy Bloody Hell. And, as it has every year since GOMA took the helm in 2018, BIFF will also showcase the work of this year's patrons: Aussie acting legend Jack Thompson and Academy Award-nominated film editor Jill Bilcock. On the bill are films starring the former and edited by the latter. The likes of Burke & Wills, Yolgnu Boy and The Assassination of Richard Nixon fall into the first category, with Romeo + Juliet, The Dressmaker and Road to Perdition in the second. It wouldn't be a GOMA event without getting out the Gallery's 1929 Wurlitzer organ, too, of course. In 2020, it'll be given a whirl during a screening of 1915's Filibus, about the adventures of a female sky pirate. The 2020 Brisbane International Film Festival runs from Thursday, October 1–Sunday, October 11 at a variety of Brisbane venues. For further information, and to book tickets, head to the festival website. Top images: Production still from Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra 2020. Directors: Wayne Blair, Nel Minchin. Image courtesy: Icon Film Distribution. Production still from The Truffle Hunters 2020. Director: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw. Image courtesy: Sony Pictures Releasing. Production still from High Ground 2020. Director: Stephen Maxwell Johnson. Image courtesy: Madman Entertainment.
When it comes to food events, there's nothing quite like Sunnybank's Food Tours. Brisbane suburb's shopping hub has become a diner's delight with cafes and restaurants featuring a range of authentic, oriental cuisines. On the Food Discovery Tour, chef Tony Ching shows you the very best places to eat and shop, plus provides a few tips, tricks and pointers along the way. The 10am lunchtime tours include Yum Cha at Sunnybank's famed Landmark restaurant, and the 3.30pm afternoon tour finishes with a progressive dinner through the Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong-style, Vietnamese, Korean and Taiwanese dishes on offer at the centre. With such an array of steaming soups and sizzling stir-fries on offer, we recommend arriving as hungry as possible. By Sarah Ward and Quinn Connors.
Come with us now on a journey through time and space, as Matthew McConaughey takes the top spot as heroic protagonist in the new Christopher Nolan film, Interstellar. The brand new (awesome) trailer can only be watched at Interstellar's newly launched website. Once you get there, you'll need a special passcode — '7201969' — the date Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Badass. The film sees McConaughey and fellow astronaut Anne Hathaway travel through a wormhole with the simple goal of saving humanity. The newly-released trailer gives a tiny insight into McConaughey’s character — an engineer and widowed father with two children — as well as vast landscapes of alien worlds and a spaceship hurtling through empty space. We can tell this is not going to be a smooth-sailing intergalactic ride, as McConaughey philosophises in the opening lines, "We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt." Cue goosebumps. The highly-anticipated film also stars Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Topher Grace and Matt Damon. That’s one stellar Interstellar line-up right there (#sorrynotsorry). This is Nolan’s first film since wrapping up the Batman trilogy with The Dark Night Rises. Interstellar will be in cinemas November 7 and has a pretty killer poster lurking around: Via The Verge.
Yo guys, keep it on the down low, but there’s an event where you can “taste” (read: drink) free wine at the incredibly fancy Bacchus restaurant and rub shoulders with their head sommelier and maître d’frommage Andrew Giblin. Come along one Wednesday evening and learn how to actually tell the difference between good and bad wine. You'll be impressing/irritating your friends at house parties for years to come.
When you're in lockdown, you're only meant to go to the shops to buy essentials — and while creative cocktails may be crucial to your stay-at-home experience, gathering all the ingredients to make them doesn't really fit with the intention behind the rule. Thankfully, delivery services have been filling in the gaps. Cocktail Porter is one of them, bringing DIY kits to your door featuring everything you need to whip up inventive beverages. And yes, it's mighty handy even if your part of the country doesn't happen to be locked down at this very moment. Already, the service has delivered three different types of Gelato Messina cocktail kits — including summery concoctions, Easter cocktails served in Easter eggs and dulce de leche espresso martinis. The next packs on its list also feature a beloved ingredient, although Messina isn't involved. But hey, everyone loves Wizz Fizz, right? Yes, we know the answer to that question. Every Australian kid loves Wizz Fizz, and every Aussie that's ever been a kid, because that's something your tastebuds can never outgrow. Cocktail Porter's new DIY Tommy's margarita kits feature the little bags of sherbet alongside Tromba Blanco tequila, agave syrup and Listo Tommy's margarita mix. It also comes with chilli salt, if you'd prefer to spice up your drink. You can pick between two different-sized packs, with a small kit costing $75 and serving up six drinks — and a large pack priced at $135 and making 18 dessert cocktails. Cocktail Porter delivers Australia-wide, if that's your spring drinking plans sorted. The DIY Tommy's margarita kits will be delivered from Wednesday, September 15, and you'll need to have signed up for one by Sunday, September 12. They're actually part of Cocktail Porter's monthly subscriptions, which see a different kit sent to your door each and every month. To order Cocktail Porter's DIY Tommy's margarita kits, head to the Cocktail Porter website.
UPDATE, November 23, 2020: Human Flow is available to stream via Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Like the renowned artist he is, Ai Weiwei opens Human Flow with a splash of painterly beauty, one of many that'll be seen over the course of the film's 140 minutes. An aerial shot of the sea fills the screen, its texture glistening, its colour shimmering, and a lone white seagull soaring over its scenic expanse. Even when the movie cuts to its next image — of a vessel filled with refugees powering through the gentle waves — it looks like something from a nature documentary. In a way, that's exactly what Human Flow is: a visually striking exploration of the planet's inhabitants migrating en masse across its surface. Of course, the film is also much, much more than that. Ai has never been one to shy away from politics, and is presently exiled from his Chinese homeland as a result. Returning to a topic he has contemplated repeatedly across his particular blend of art and activism (as also seen in his studio in Lesbos, recent series of New York fences and the 60-metre-long inflatable boat now on display in Sydney), he doesn't hide the documentary's strong viewpoint on the subject at hand. Moving between more than 40 refugee camps in 23 countries in total — from Afghanistan and Israel to Germany and the US — Human Flow both depicts and denounces the reality experienced by the 65 million people currently considered displaced. As the movie informs the audience, that's a level last seen during the Second World War. Interviews pop up throughout, flitting between experts, those trying to assist and a number of the displaced themselves. Lines from poets, writers and thinkers also frequently feature on-screen, speaking of humanity's overwhelming desire to simply be treated with dignity. Further slabs of text provide facts about and add context to the film's geographical segments, while a newsfeed intermittently scrolls across the bottom of the frame. Occasionally, Ai himself makes an appearance, chatting to refugees, bearing witness and trying to grapple with the enormity of the struggles before him. He helps people onto the shore from boats, and at one point swaps his own passport with a Syrian asylum seeker. At a wedding, he even dances. As rousing and resonant as all of the above proves, it's the documentary's main imagery, and the cinematography that goes with it, that makes Human Flow such a stunning achievement. Some shots offer breathtaking bird's-eye views of the masses moving across different landscapes. Others are grainy, urgent and shot on mobile phones, immersing viewers in the daily existence of refugees everywhere. The juxtaposition tells its own story: about the ease of seeing things from afar versus the difficulties of truly diving into the details, and the vastness of the problem at hand versus the personal toll for those trying to find a better life. This film is clearly an emphatic condemnation of the refugee crisis. It's also one that knows that reading headlines is one thing, but that seeing it up close — on the ground, all around the world — is something else entirely. The end result is a moving documentary that's mammoth yet intimate in both its scope and impact. Crucially, it's also heartfelt without overtly tugging at the heartstrings. Again, Ai is well aware that his observational, unhurried images (shot with the assistance of 11 other credited cinematographers) speak for themselves. Forget a picture just being worth a thousand words – Human Flow convincingly and compellingly advocates for millions of lives, for action in a world of apathy, and for not only the free movement of people in need, but the flow of humanity towards them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP5F7-RwVgM
Clear your calendars for the next three weeks, and then start filling them with Brisbane Festival events. The city's annual artistic celebration is back — and, as proves the case every September, it's absolutely begging for your attention. Basically, if you're seeing a show, wandering around an exhibition, taking to the dancefloor or just having a beverage with a friend from September 3 to 24, then you'd best be doing it at Bris Fest. In his second year as the festival's artistic director, David Berthold has put together quite the list of options for Brissie arts and culture lovers: 70 productions and 540 performances across five key venues, in fact. You'll find a showcase of music cinema, a theatre re-telling of a recent chapter of Brisbane history, Meow Meow's take on The Little Mermaid and a couple of classic film versions of Snow White among the program's many highlights, plus hangout spot Arcadia and the explosive finale that is Riverfire, too. And if you can't decide what to see, we're here to help. In addition to the above, here's our pick of the ten festival events we think you should be flocking to. Image: Pia Johnson.
Food is usually the gift you give when you can't think of anything else. Come on, you know it's true. That said, anyone getting their dad Gelato Messina's latest special Father's Day creation can't be accused of that. Actually, anyone who buys it for their dad instead of just nabbing it for themselves deserves to be the family favourite. As it did last year — and for the past few years for Mother's Day, too — chocolates are on the brand's Father's Day menu in 2022. Chocolate biscuits, to be exact. Are mint slice biscuits a staple of your parents' pantry? Do they make you feel nostalgic for that exact reason? Well, now you can get your daad the Messina version. The gelato chain does love taking other beloved desserts and giving them its own spin; see also: honey joys, Bounty and Chokito bars, Iced VoVos, Viennetta and Golden Gaytimes, just to name a few. Messina's minty biscuits, as these bikkies are called, come in 12 packs, and feature chocolate sablé biscuits with a soft mint centre that are then covered in 65-percent single-origin Messina dark chocolate. They're being made at the brand's Rosebery headquarters, and you can only pick them up online, for $25 a box plus shipping, from 9am, Monday, August 22. Then, they'll be sent by Monday, August 29. If you really are ordering them for your dad and yours come early, try not to eat them, obviously. Gelato Messina's minty biscuits will be available to order from 9am, Monday, August 22.
December, 2005. Two cars circle the beachside Sydney suburb of Cronulla, each filled with hotheaded locals looking for a fight. In one vehicle, the aggressive Jason (Damon Herriman) and his Ned Kelly-worshipping pal Ditch (Justin Rosniak) take the well-meaning but not-so-bright Shit Stick (Alexander England) and his kind-hearted Down Syndrome cousin Evan (Chris Bunton) in search of folks of Middle Eastern descent to bash. In the other, Hassim (Lincoln Younes) tears himself away from his studies to scour the streets for his missing brother – though his pals Nick (Rahel Romahn) and D-Mac (Fayssal Bazzi) and his devout uncle Ibrahim (Michael Denkha) are all keen to cause some physical damage to the area's ocker residents along the way. It's a scenario inspired by reality, in a film filled with harsh truths. If you're feeling a little awkward or even confronted by a comic take on the Cronulla race riots, that's okay. You're supposed to be. Like British terrorism satire Four Lions before it, Down Under addresses a subject everyone is aware of but no one wants to talk about, in perhaps the only way that it can. Feeling like you shouldn't be laughing at what you're seeing is part of the point. Thinking about why you're laughing is as well. Accordingly, the plot of Down Under offers a peek at the ugly side of Australian life. Conflict, discrimination and violence is inescapable in this film, as is the sense of discomfort by those watching. In his polished, purposefully provocative return to feature filmmaking after 2003's Ned, writer-director Abe Forsythe revels in the controversial nature of a situation that no one in the country can claim is unrealistic. After all, we all saw the scenes that made the news just over a decade ago; in fact, that's the footage Down Under begins with. As the two groups spend a day and a night driving around searching for weapons and arguing amongst themselves, the film manages to find the delicate balance between making a statement and making you laugh. Gags that stress the similarities between both sides provide many of the film's funniest and most astute moments, while Forsythe's clearly committed cast ensures that the characters never feel like mere caricatures – even when they're spouting idiotic, bigoted crap. Ultimately, Down Under isn't simply attempting to get viewers cackling about an uncomfortable topic. Forsythe is primarily trying to highlight the nation's deep-seeded intolerance, as well as the pointlessness of spewing hate based on cultural differences. It's little wonder that the film that results isn't just a comedy, but a tragedy as well. And given the current political and media landscape, this movie and its message really couldn't be more timely.
Leaping from the screen to the stage in 2018, Mean Girls not only found a second life in the theatre, but did so with singing and dancing. Unsurprisingly, the production was a hit. With the musical's book written by Tina Fey, its tunes composed by her husband Jeff Richmond and its lyrics by Tony-nominee Nell Benjamin, the machinations of high-school cliques struck just as much of a chord with audiences when set to songs — and given that the show's tracks have highly appropriate names such as 'Meet the Plastics', 'World Burn' and 'Here (You Can Sit with Us)', that's to be expected. Also easy to predict: the musical's next leap, with Cady Heron's tale heading back to the cinema. No need to stress if you haven't seen the all-singing, all-dancing Mean Girls on Broadway, because a film version will soon be brightening up a picture palace near you. When the movie adaptation screens on a Wednesday, you'll want to wear pink. And, like the Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams-starring original film, as well as the stage musical that followed, you'll be basking in Fey's talents. She wrote the initial feature's screenplay and, as detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, she's now producing this new movie musical. So is Saturday Night Live's Lorne Michaels, although no other creatives — or cast, or a release date — have been announced. The story will stay the same, obviously, charting Cady's rough adjustment to American high-school life after spending the bulk of her childhood living in Africa — and her time spent with the resident popular clique, known as 'the Plastics'. If you're wondering how it all works as a musical, check out a clip from the stage show below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGmgEoOF7Gs Via The Hollywood Reporter.
On the lookout for a dope new denim jacket? Or do you want to be rid of that weird-looking lamp taking up space in the living room? Then, by golly, you're in luck. The Garage Sale Trail works with local council partners Australia-wide to get as many trash-and-treasure troves happening on the same day as possible. More than 10,000 garages are expected to open their doors to bargain hunters, selling two million items, when the event returns for its eight time — and it's first two-day, weekend-long stint — on October 21 and 22. Aside from the retro goodies up for grabs, the Trail is all about sustainability. Instead of ending up in landfill, unwanted clutter becomes a fantastic find. So get that tight pair of sunnies for peanuts and help the environment at the same time. The Garage Sale Trail began humbly in Bondi in 2010 and is growing bigger every year. There'll be a right slew of sales happening all around Brisbane, so keep your eyes on the event website — or register online to make a quick buck from your old junk and hang out with the friendly folks in your hood.
After what's seemed like an eternity, summer is finally here. Combine that with the usual silly season shenanigans, and it means that we're getting ready for some serious partying. The one thing that any party needs, though, is music. We've teamed up with Hennessy to ask ARIA-nominated rapper B Wise for his playlists that set the mood for any occasion — whether for the before party, the party party or the after party. SETTING THE MOOD: ALTERNATIVE HIP HOP B Wise checks this playlist as his "personal vibe and taste", while providing a good counterpoint to his own music. "I feel most of my music as an Australian-based rapper feels alternative to the rest of the world." HYPE MUSIC: BLACK LIVES MATTER Need to hype yourself up for a night out? Look no further than these songs about empowerment and pride. B Wise says: "the playlist title says it all. Some of the best sounds from Black creators." TIME TO MOVE: RAP UK Ready to really get the night started? This selection of UK rap is a sure bet. "When it's time to move like a road man (or hit the gym), this is my vibe." LOCAL PICKS: A1 This international selection of the hottest hip hop right now is an Australian-curated selection that also includes tunes from homegrown talent. According to B Wise, this playlist "always keeps the big energy up". HIT THE FLOOR: RAPCAVIAR You know that time of the night when it's past the point of no return? This is the playlist for that time. "If we partying, this is the first playlist I'm gonna visit." AFTER PARTY: STRANGE NIGHTS Naturally, even the after party needs tunes — and this list curated by B Wise himself is sure to strike the right note. "One of those if you know, you know kinda vibes. For the party after the party." Level up this summer with Hennessy. Hennessy V.S brings elegance and complexity to any mix while showcasing its versatile appeal. Whether it's an Espresso Martini, an Old Fashioned or the game-changing mix Hennessy x Ginger, Hennessy allows you to step it up this summer. Top image: Jarrad Shaw
"You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" Jack Nicholson's (How Do You Know) version of the Joker asked in 1989's Batman, just because he liked the sound of it. Here's another question: have you ever seen the Tim Burton (Wednesday)-helmed, Michael Keaton (The Flash)-starring classic caped-crusader movie on the big screen with a live orchestra playing its score? Whatever your answer to the first query, you can soon respond to the second with a hearty yes. To celebrate 35 years since the superhero classic initially reached cinemas, Batman is making a silver-screen comeback Down Under to see out 2024 and start 2025 — and in each of its six stops, including in Brisbane, it's giving the film's tunes the symphonic treatment. It's Batman in concert, with the movie playing the Queensland capital across Tuesday December, 3–Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at the BCEC Great Hall, complete with Foreman's Australian Pops Orchestra picking up their instruments as the flick screens. They'll be busting out Danny Elfman's Grammy-nominated score, which is just one of the feature's music highlights. The other: songs by the one and only Prince. As well as marking three-and-a-half decades since the picture debuted, these concert screenings also commemorate 85 years of the character on the page — and have been announced just as Burton and Keaton reteam again for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Keaton's stint in Bruce Wayne's slick suits by day and Batman's cape by night kicked off a big-screen four-movie series that ran from 1989–1997, and also saw Val Kilmer (Top Gun: Maverick) and George Clooney (IF) inhabit the role — a character played elsewhere by everyone from Adam West and Christian Bale (Amsterdam) to Ben Affleck (Air) and Robert Pattinson (The Batman). As part of a global tour of events, only Batman going the concert route so far, not Batman Returns, Batman Forever or Batman and Robin. If you're keen to dress up to attend, that's encouraged — and there'll also be merchandise on sale.
The oldest floral festival in Australia, the Grafton Jacaranda Festival focuses on the hundreds of lilac-blossomed trees that line the town's streets. First held in 1935, the festival brings together art exhibitions, live music, markets and parades for a week-long celebration from October 28 through November 5. While the jacaranda blooms are of course the main attraction, it's by no means the only event you'll have to look forward to during the festival — think a 30-team dragon boat race and a Venetian-style circus and carnival, along with buskers, fireworks and stallholders aplenty. Grafton takes their tree heritage seriously and currently holds the title for biggest jacaranda on the National Tree Register of Big Trees (yes, it is a real registry). While in town, visit 'The Gorge', a tree which measures at a massive 30 metres high with a six-metre circumference. It deserves a nice big hug, we reckon.
When the term 'kidulting' gets thrown around, it usually means one thing: taking a pastime that you enjoyed when you were a child and adding alcohol. It's why we have boozy mini golf bars, cocktail-slinging arcades and beer-serving bowling alleys, all aimed at adults. And at the latter in May, you can also add free gigs — and free brews and ten-pin, too — to the equation. Your destination: Strike Bowling, which is bringing back its Live on the Lanes concert series. The shows first took place in 2018, returned in 2019, but were then put on hold during the pandemic — and this time, they're going on the on the road. Live on the Lanes will hit up Strike QV in Melbourne, QV Wintergarden in Brisbane and Wintergarden King Street Wharf Sydney across Wednesday, May 11–Friday, May 13. But before you going marking your calendar, this is the kind of show you need to win tickets to. Entries open between 9am Thursday, April 7–11.59pm Wednesday, May 4 via the Strike Bowling website. If you nab a freebie, you really will get everything covered — the music, the beer and your time hurtling balls down the lane. Touch Sensitive will taking care of the tunes, hopping up on stages in each city that'll be set up on top of the alley. And those free lagers will come courtesy of Byron Bay Brewery — which is obviously something to say cheers to. LIVE ON THE LANES 2022: Wednesday, May 11 — Strike QV, Melbourne Thursday, May 12 — Strike Wintergarden, Brisbane Friday, May 13 — Strike King Street Wharf, Sydney Live on the Lanes tours Australia's east coast between Wednesday, May 11–Friday, May 13. For more information, or to enter to win tickets between 9am Thursday, April 7–11.59pm Wednesday, May 4, head to the Strike Bowling website.
It might seem counterproductive to leave Australia in search of a beach holiday, but across New Zealand's 15,000 kilometres of pristine coastline, there are more sheltered seafronts, rugged cliff-lined shores and black sand beaches than you can shake a towel at. Deciding where to spend the warmer months with sand in every crevice and saltwater lapping around your ankles can be an adventure in itself. This month, New Zealand enters another phase in its post-COVID reopening plan, and from 11.59pm NZST / 8.59pm AEST on Tuesday, April 12, we can once again visit our closest neighbours without needing to quarantine on arrival. If you've got a trip over the ditch on your 2022 wishlist, we've put together a list of some of the best New Zealand beaches that you should visit at least once in your lifetime — whether you're keen to brave a winter dip or you're just already dreaming of next summer's sojourns. TAWHARANUI REGIONAL PARK, AUCKLAND Found around 90 kilometres from Auckland central, Tāwharanui Regional Park offers the full spread of summery activities for keen adventurers. Once you've reached the end of the gravel access road, you'll be greeted by beautiful white sand shoreline, easy walking tracks and crystal-clear rock pools up for exploration. It's also known to pump out some beginner-friendly waves, so don't forget to pack your preferred floatation device. And to really make the most of your trip, book a spot at the tent campsite so that you can stare at the clear skies above. [caption id="attachment_791375" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Adam Bryce[/caption] CATHEDRAL COVE, COROMANDEL This gem is a must-do in the Coromandel — and for good reason. Golden sand and a stunning natural rock archway await, whether you decide to arrive at the picturesque spot by boat, kayak or on foot. Leaving from Hahei, the 45-minute walk is well maintained and traverses rugged farmland, before delving into native bush. There are plenty of dramatic vantage points for photo opportunities, but the main event is the beach where you can easily wile away an entire afternoon. [caption id="attachment_791442" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Department of Conservation[/caption] ANCHORAGE BAY, ABEL TASMAN NATIONAL PARK It can be hard to pick just one beach in the Abel Tasman, but how about starting with Anchorage Bay? The horseshoe bay is home to the first large beachside camping spot along the Abel Tasman walking trail and where boaties anchor their vessels — making it one of the more popular destinations in the national park. Here you'll find sweeping golden sand and turquoise blue waters, with a number of short walks leading to smaller secluded bays and stunning natural rock formations. During low tide you can walk across the tidal estuary to Torrent Bay. It'd also be rude not to mention (and jump in water taxi to) Kaiteriteri. [caption id="attachment_791435" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Adventure HQ[/caption] MAITAI BAY, BAY OF ISLANDS To really feel like you're on a tropical island, head to Maitai Bay at the point of the Karikari Peninsula. With its golden sand and crystal-clear blue water, the small sheltered horseshoe bay is something straight from a postcard. The destination can be extraordinarily popular in the summer months, so much so that local iwi declared the region a "no-take zone," in 2018 to allow sea life to recover. The rahui on fishing has finished, but we still recommend you reserve your time here for swimming, snorkelling and kayaking. If you're seeking a thrill, head through the bush at the right end of the beach and you'll find a stone ledge that serves as the perfect diving board. Book well in advance for a spot at the DOC campground. [caption id="attachment_664046" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Russell Street[/caption] PIHA, AUCKLAND Swim with caution at this rugged west Auckland beach. Piha might be best known for its strong currents and New Zealand's television answer to Bondi Rescue, but it's also a stunning location to spend the day. Choose your real estate on the hot black sand (don't forget footwear) and then cool off between the flags. Walking tracks can be completed along the headlands and up to scenic lookouts, while further along the coast are equally as wild beaches like Karekare and Muriwai where you can take a surf lesson and go horse trekking. [caption id="attachment_791439" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Awful-N4[/caption] NEW CHUMS, COROMANDEL Hidden away from the masses for most of the year, New Chums has previously been voted as one of the world's top ten beaches. The stretch of golden sand on the Coromandel Peninsula is fringed by pohutukawa and native forest and has no buildings, roads or infrastructure. Access to the one-kilometre undeveloped stretch of paradise is by boat or via a rocky foreshore walk from the Whangapoua car park. And once you're there it's no uncommon to spot marine life swimming the length of the beach. [caption id="attachment_791437" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kiwi Canary[/caption] AWAROA, ABLE TASMAN NATIONAL PARK Awaroa made headlines in 2016 when it was bought via crowdfunding campaign by the New Zealand public for over two million dollars and then donated back to the national park. The secluded golden banks of Awaroa are only accessible to those walking the Abel Tasman Coastal Track two hours either side of low tide, or by boat or helicopter. A short walk inland there's the Awaroa Lodge where you can enjoy pizza under a glade of native trees, and there are several glamping and camping options for overnight holidaymakers. [caption id="attachment_791441" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Russell Street[/caption] NGARUNUI, RAGLAN Sometimes called Ocean Beach, Main Beach or Wainui Beach, this wild black sand beach with consistent waves is ideal for groms learning how to surf. The Raglan Surf School is parked up right on the vast west coast stretch for those keen to get in on the action, while more experienced riders can hire boards and wetsuits by the hour. With unforgiving riptides, ocean swimmers should stay between the flags. Hang around until the end of the day and you'll cop an extraordinary sunset. [caption id="attachment_791440" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Glen Sinclair[/caption] WHARARIKI, NELSON This windswept beach has to be one of the country's most photographed sections of coastline. The beach is only accessible via a 20-minute track from the end of Wharariki Road, which travels over farmland and through coastal forest. With particularly big seas, sight-seeing is the number one attraction here — and the Archway Islands will certainly serve up the goods. The group of four rock formations rising from the tide provide an exception photo opp, especially if you decide to tour the region on horseback. [caption id="attachment_791436" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Trevor Klatko[/caption] NINETY MILE BEACH, NORTHLAND This epic 88-kilometre-long stretch of sand has to be seen to be believed. The famed northland beach starts near Kaitaia and makes its way up to Cape Reinga. At low tide the beach is officially a public highway, but don't even think about bringing your rental hatchback here — several have been swallowed by the unforgiving seas. The dunes at Te Paki in the north are famously used for bodyboarding — just expect to take home pockets full of sand. Bring water, and sunscreen. From 11.59pm NZST / 8.59pm AEST on Tuesday, April 12, double-vaccinated Australian tourists will be able to holiday in New Zealand without needing to isolate on arrival. Tourists will be required to test negative for COVID-19 with a PCR or RAT before leaving Australia for their trip, before providing negative tests on day one and day five of their stay in New Zealand. For more information, head to the New Zealand Government's official COVID-19 website. Top image: Adam Bryce.
Usually, Betty's Burgers serves up exactly what its name suggests. Sometimes, though, the chain adds something a little different to its menu. Both last year and this year, it has whipped up indulgent but affordable lobster rolls. For Easter 2020, it went with a prawn roll. Now, it's cooking up a limited-edition steak sanga. Combining a piece of wagyu steak, cheese, lettuce, onions, pickles and the chain's in-house sauce — as made from onion relish and sriracha mayonnaise — all on a long bun, Betty's new steak sandwich is available for dine-in (where open), takeaway and delivery from its restaurants spotted across Australia. If your stomach is already rumbling, you can tuck into one for $16 — or order a 'steak night' package and get two sangas, two serves of fries and a bottle of shiraz for $55. You'll need to get in quickly, though — while Betty's hasn't provided an end date for its latest addition to its menu, it's definitely a short-term affair that's only available until stocks last. And, if it's anything like the aforementioned lobster roll, expect it to sell-out — fast. When it isn't making steak sangas, Betty's is known for its Shake Shack-style burgs and frozen custard desserts (called concretes). While you can now grab one of the chain's burgers at over 20 locations across Australia, including six Sydney outlets, four Melbourne spots, four Brisbane outposts, one Toowoomba eatery and one location in Adelaide, the company first began in Noosa, and then expanded to the Gold Coast. With the chain's stores open for takeaway and most of them offering delivery via UberEats and Deliveroo, you can get your steak sandwich to pick-up or brought to your door. To check which options your local has, head to the Betty's Burgers' website or download the app for iOS or Google Play. Betty's Burgers' steak sandwich is available at all Australian stores for a limited time. To order, download the Betty's Burgers app for iOS or Google Play.
Nazi. Zombies. Those two words alone were probably enough to secure the support of executive producer J.J. Abrams and have him green-light Overlord, the new horror/war flick by Australian director Julius Avery (Son of a Gun). Set on the eve of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the film sees a small troupe of American soldiers parachute into France tasked with destroying a Nazi radar station, only for them to discover a series of sinister, zombie-crafting experiments taking place deep beneath the facility's walls. In terms of the premise, gamers will immediately recognise similarities to both the Wolfenstein and Call of Duty franchises (the latter literally had a title called WWII Nazi Zombies – The Darkest Shore). At times the film tracks so closely to these games both in style and story that you expect the Xbox logo to appear on screen instead of the Paramount one. To the film's credit, though, for every example of borrowed content or tired cliche, Overlord surprises you with nifty subversions of horror-genre tropes and delights in its consistent, sumptuous cinematography. Much of the film's success actually lies in its pacing, and it's a testament to screenwriters Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith that they're willing to be so patient with their eventual zombie reveal. Indeed, it's so long before the first encounter with the undead that the film's trailer borders on misleading and deceptive marketing. Just like the shark in Jaws, we see the monsters in Overlord only after we've seen clues to their existence and their horrific, destructive power. And when at last they do arrive, the wait is (mostly) justified. Immensely strong and grotesquely twisted with sharpened bones protruding through burnt or shredded flesh, the fiends look and feel appropriately terrifying. If there's a complaint to be made, it's that – once revealed – they're deployed far too sparingly. Intentional or not, it's the mortal Nazis and not their flesh-eating compatriots who feel the most sinister in Overlord, and since the peril in the zombie genre traditionally comes from their unstoppable swarm dimension, removing that dynamic feels like a significant misstep. Overlord's characters aren't much for groundbreaking, coming straight from the stock WWII movie playbook. On the Allied side there's wise-cracking Italian-American Tibbet (John Magaro), timid war photographer Chase (Iain De Caestecker), grizzled loner Ford (Wyatt Russell) and pure-of-heart rookie Boyce (Jovan Adepo). On the Axis side, we're given an unapologetically evil commander named Wafner (Pilou Asbaek) who, to his credit, goes all-out in the performance. Also in the mix is French actress Mathilde Ollivier as Chloe, a civilian from the nearby town who helps hide the Americans from the Nazis and whose work is probably the film's standout. Given the film spends so much time in the company of these characters, it's disappointing that it rarely evolves their personalities or digs into their back stories. Still, the performances are above average for a B-movie, and while the film sometimes feels as though it's being pulled between two very different genres, it still has enough going for it to be worth your time and your money. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USPd0vX2sdc
Spend your next Saturday morning brunch session with the creature you love most: your furry, barking, four-legged best friend. You'll start the first day of the weekend with cocktails, while they can munch on doggo desserts. It's a win for everyone. Also on offer at Dog Brunch: plenty of cafe fare, tapas if that's what your stomach is hungering for, live tunes and a dog brunch photo wall. You can also learn how to make your pupper a 'fancy as' dog shirt, all thanks to Alice Nightingale. While entry to the brunch is free in general, tickets for the sewing session cost $60 for a three-hour class. [caption id="attachment_760495" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Alice Nightingale[/caption] Held in California Lane, and spearheaded by Froth on Brunswick and The Stand, Dog Brunch takes place from 10am–2pm on Saturday, February 15 — so mark it in your pooch's diary. While further dates haven't yet been announced, this is set to become a monthly happening too — which should cause your woofer to start wagging its tale with excitement.
Grabbing a bite from a restaurant is great. Buying clothes from shopping centres is fine. Ordering gifts on the internet works. And picking up a new plant for your home at Bunnings is okay (well, it's pretty good if you get a snag). But there's nothing quite like perusing rows and rows of food stalls, vintage wares, handmade goods and leafy greenery at markets — and just-picked produce, too — especially when it's spring. 'Tis the season, obviously. Whether you're interested in culinary specials, picking up something for your house or seasonal local produce, you have options. Whatever you're after — even if it's just browsing and having a bite to eat in the process — here are our must-attend markets happening around Brisbane (and sometimes a bit further afield) during September, October and November 2024. Top image: Lachlan Douglas.
If you've been to the Valley in the past few years, you've probably noticed a couple of particularly tall buildings shooting up on Alfred Street, around the northern end of Brunswick Street. You can't really miss them — they're part of the $600 million FV precinct. Two are already open — Valley House and Flatiron, which houses the new FV by Peppers hotel — but the next to join the fold is FV No. 1. When it opens in June, it will come complete with a rooftop bar, called Altitude, and an all-day eatery dubbed Foresters Restaurant and Bar. Adding another lofty drinking spot to Brissie's growing list of rooftop bars, Altitude will nestle into the sixth floor of the building, welcoming patrons into its 250-square-metre space from midday daily. As well as views, obviously, it'll sling cocktails, a hefty beverage list and a small range of bar snacks — and host DJs on the dance floor underneath its retractable roof. Downstairs at Foresters, chef Peter Popow will be whipping up breakfast, lunch and dinner, focusing on pub staples such as parmigiana, pizzas, burgers and steaks. Drinks will be a feature, obviously, and the eatery will also have a local focus, sourcing its ingredients from local farmers and producers. And for those wondering about name, it references the original name of the building, Foresters' Hall, which was build in 1889. Back then, the building housed a community meeting place, until it became Fortitude Valley's first cinema in 1910. The heritage façade remains part of the development. Signature Hospitality Group and developers of the FV precinct Gurner will oversee Foresters Restaurant and Bar, while Signature will go it alone on Altitude. When they open, they'll be part of FV's 1000-square-metre dining precinct. It means that Brisbanites sure won't be short of choice in the area — with Fortitude Valley's Brunswick Street, Bowen Hills' King Street and New Farm's James Street all located within a few blocks of the development. Altitude and Foresters Restaurant and Bar will open in mid-June inside FV No. 1, 147 Alfred Street, Fortitude Valley. We'll keep you updated on an opening date.
We've all seen it rotating lazily, shining brightly and reflecting in the slow-flowing Brisbane River. Yes, we are talking about the Wheel of Brisbane, and if you've always thought that you should take a ride at some point in your lifetime, then we reckon there's no time like the now. Even if the giant Ferris wheel hasn't crossed your mind, we still think you should go for a ride because sometimes playing tourist in your own city can be pretty darn fun. This almost 60-metre tall wheel gives you a pretty spectacular view over the city and beyond, and let's face it, it would make for a pretty delightful date night. After your ride, treat your date (and yourself, of course) to the creative and highly delicious ice cream flavours at the newly-opened (and nearby) Gelato Messina. Image: Anwyn Howarth.
Canberra music, food and art festival Spilt Milk is set to return to the capital this November, celebrating its third outing with a suitably huge lineup. Heading up the bill is none other than US hip hop star Childish Gambino, fresh off the back of a #1 Billboard Charts debut for his single This Is America. He hasn't yet announced any other Australian shows, but Spilt Milk isn't billing his appearance as an exclusive, so chances are he'll announce at least a few more shows. (We've still got out fingers crossed that he bring his Pharos festival here after New Zealand.) He'll be joined at the capital's Commonwealth Park on November 17 by fellow international stars, UK pop legends The Wombats and LA producer RL Grime. There's also plenty of homegrown goodness on the menu, with the likes of Sydney singer-songwriter Vera Blue, indie-pop sensation Jack River, dance floor darling Hayden James and Canberra's own high-energy duo Peking Duk all set to take the Spilt Milk stage. But the musical lineup's not to be outdone by the rest of the program, with a ripper serve of visual art, tasty eats and pop-up bars on the cards. Get ready for a multisensory feast, as Hamburg-based artist Stefanie Thiele leads a team of local talent in creating a wondrous playground of installations and art experiences. And keep those taste buds satisfied throughout the day, with eats from the likes of Dirty Bird Food Truck, Bao Brothers, Happy As Larry and Chur Burger. If you fancy being a part of Spilt Milk round three, you'd best not dilly dally — the festival's debut event in 2016 sold out in a mere 18 minutes, while the following year's tickets were all snapped up within nine minutes. This year, Canberra locals will get first dibs, with Homegrown tickets on sale July 1. After that, pre-sale tickets will be available Australia-wide from noon on July 3, with a general admission release on sale at 12pm, Thursday, July 5. In the meantime, here's what you came for — the full lineup for Spilt Milk 2018. SPILT MILK 2018 LINEUP Blanke Camouflage Rose Channel Tres Childish Gambino Cub Sport Ebony Boadu Hatchie Hayden James Jack River Kinder Kira Puru Kwame Manu Crook$ Methyl Ethel Miss Blanks Moaning Lisa Peking Duk RL Grime Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever Shockone Skeggs Thandi Phoenix The Jungle Giants The Wombats Thundamentals Vera Blue Willaris. K YG ARTISTS Faith Kerehona JBR Roskoe Stefanie Thiele VOIR (With more to be announced) FOOD Bao Brothers Eatery Chur Burger Dirty Bird Food Truck Happy As Larry Sofrito Paella Image: Cole Bennetts.
There's nothing quite like smoked meats oozing out of a brioche bun, as How We Rolls well and truly knows. In fact, that's how they roll. And, after spending the past few years rolling around town serving up tasty fare out of their food truck, they're settling into Sabotage Social for a decent stay. From January 11, hungry Brisbanites can find delicious meaty dishes on the Fortitude Valley bar's menu for 12 weeks as part of a good ol' fashioned kitchen takeover. Whether you can't pass up their titular offering, or you prefer your peppery Texas beef with red chilli cabbage slaw, sweet Kansas pork with fresh rémoulade slaw or Cajun chicken on a plate with dill pickles, they'll be on offer. And their secret sauces, obviously. Image: How We Rolls.
Kitty Green doesn't just direct films that demand attention; she makes movies where paying the utmost notice to small moments and details couldn't be more pivotal. With her 2013 debut Ukraine Is Not a Brothel, she deployed her documentarian's eye to explore protest group Femen with revealing and probing intimacy. With 2017's bold and unforgettable Casting JonBenet, Green honed in on the minutiae that can swirl around a crime — especially when true crime has become its own genre, sparking non-stop theories even decades later — all while structuring her picture around holding auditions for a film about the infamous case that shares the feature's name. The Melbourne-born filmmaker moved into fiction with 2019's The Assistant, and now stays there with The Royal Hotel. The shift has still seen Green unpacking reality. The Assistant is a #MeToo movie set in a film production company's office where sexual harassment at its head honcho's hands has become distressingly normalised. The Royal Hotel sprang to life after Green watched Australian documentary Hotel Coolgardie, about two Finnish women encountering the worst of Australia's drinking culture while working in Western Australia's Denver City Hotel, with the director then inspired to dramatise the situation. Diving into insidious everyday horrors in topical thrillers: that's Green's fictional niche right now, even with both The Assistant and The Royal Hotel born from facts. Getting three-time Ozark Emmy-winner Julia Garner playing women confronted with problematic gender dynamics and power imbalances in ominous spaces is also her current terrain — as is peering as closely and intently as Green can. "People keep asking about how my background in documentary helps, and I'm not sure it does really," Green tells Concrete Playground about taking her cues from Hotel Coolgardie this time around, and how her time making docos factors in. "I mean, I think maybe it affects what I watch and my references, and what sort of inspires me." "I really like the close stuff. I like movies that are about these tiny moments. That's something you can't really do in documentaries, because have to stay wide because you don't know what will happen. But with a fiction film, you can really hone in on a facial expression or gesture or a glance — these kinds of little moments that can make you know that a woman in that space feels very uncomfortable, but often get missed by the environment at large. So I was able to amplify those moments with a fiction film." The Assistant spends a day in the life of Garner's Jane, lingering claustrophobically in her New York workplace as the junior staffer navigates the impact of her boss' actions, as well as the hostilities engrained in the industry for women in general. The Royal Hotel finds its terrors in an outback pub where backpackers man the bar, with Garner's Hanna and Jessica Henwick's (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery) Liv the latest arrivals at the titular mining-town watering hole. In both, unsettling men surround young women doing a job, with The Royal Hotel's male cast reading like a who's who of Australian talent. In her first Aussie-made feature, Green enlists Hugo Weaving (Love Me) as the pub proprietor, with Toby Wallace (Babyteeth), James Frecheville (The Dry) and Daniel Henshall (Mystery Road: Origin) among the regulars. "It's been good to have it back home," Green explains of the film, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, also played Toronto and London, then opened the first-ever SXSW Sydney Screen Festival and the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival. "Honestly, we screened it in the US, in Canada, in Spain and in the UK, and I feel like while they seem to really enjoy it and it seemed to play really well, I think it there's an element, a lot of kind of nuances, that they miss. There's a lot of Australian humour that they don't really pick up on over there." With The Royal Hotel now showing in Aussie cinemas — and The Assistant a must-see since it first arrived a few years back — we spoke to Green about taking inspiration not only from Hotel Coolgardie, how her two fictional features pair well together and the importance of casting, as well as adopting a female perspective on Australia's drinking culture, working Kylie Minogue's 'The Locomotion' onto the soundtrack and the hope to do a third film with Garner. ON BEING INSPIRED TO MAKE THE ROYAL HOTEL AFTER WATCHING HOTEL COOLGARDIE "I was just immediately struck by Hotel Coolgardie, and just the dynamics at play in it. And I had seen Australian drinking culture on film before, but I haven't seen it through the eyes of two young women, foreign women, who didn't understand the rules of it and were trying to make sense of it. So that to me was really interesting and great territory for a film to take place. It became the jumping off point for our screenplay. I worked with co-writer Oscar Redding (Van Diemen's Land), who lives in regional Australia. The two of us threw around a lot of the dialogue and figured it out that way. But mostly it's based on our own experiences of being in pubs and seeing things happen, and stories our friends told us. You basically soak a bunch of things up, it sits in your brain, and then you figure out what you want to use, and what's fun and what works, and what adds to the tension. It's definitely never one thing. It's all come from a few different places, I think." ON THE ROYAL HOTEL'S PARALLELS WITH THE ASSISTANT "You always want a challenge with the next project you take on, but I also liked the idea that I could work with Julia again. It was something I knew could work in a similar way — that is, a character trying to make sense of her environment. But with The Royal Hotel, everything is up. Everything is wilder and weirder and stranger — a lot more noise and craziness. So it was a fun challenge to take on." ON RETEAMING WITH JULIA GARNER FOR THE SECOND FILM IN A ROW "We worked really well together on The Assistant. And often we don't get the biggest budgets in the world, so we have to work quite quickly. So there's a shorthand that we have, we have this ability to communicate — you don't have to discuss things at length. We get each other, in a way, so that really works. So I was hoping to work with her again, and this project, when I saw Hotel Coolgardie, I was like 'ohh this could be a role for Julia which is interesting to me' — putting her in that environment was interesting to me. So yeah, it just fit. I dragged her out here, and she did it, which was great. She was excited about the project. I think landing here, we drove them [Garner and Henwick] straight out to the middle of nowhere, and I think they were a bit freaked out for a moment there. We kind of had to live the movie a little bit. We put them up in pubs nearby our shooting location, so they really had the full experience — which, I think they had a great time, but it took them a second just feel comfortable in the place and figure out who the people were. Yeah, it took a minute, but they really, honestly, they had such a good time, the two of them. They were so happy." [caption id="attachment_927983" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Royal Hotel[/caption] ON CASTING THE ROYAL HOTEL'S MEN "The set was a pretty warm and loving place. When you call cut, it feels very safe. That was something we intentionally tried to create, which was making sure we cast the right men, essentially, to play those roles — who understood the sensitivity of the material. I think we got the right people and it was able to feel good for everyone. We wanted them all to feel a little different. We wanted them all to have their own energy. They all bring something something different. And they're all wonderful and warm and kind lovely people, which was great, too. We knew we needed someone cheeky and young to play Mattie, and Toby Wallace was available and a sweetheart, and understood what we're trying to do. Then James [Frecheville], I'd loved in Animal Kingdom, so it was exciting to get to work with him. And Dan [Henshall] was in Snowtown and was absolutely terrifying, so I knew that he could deliver in terms of Dolly. We have fun with that because I think Australians come to it with that understanding. Americans don't, but they still find him really intense. He's not like that in real life, though. Somehow we convinced them all to say yes, and put ourselves together a lovely group." ON SEEING AUSTRALIA DIFFERENTLY BY EXPLORING THE OUTBACK AND COUNTRY'S DRINKING CULTURE THROUGH THE EYES OF WOMEN "That became the agenda, I guess, in a way, but it wasn't a political thing. It was more just this is a story I want to tell, and this is something I have experienced in ways, and it felt real and it felt honest. It was about getting the right collaborators who understand what you're doing. I know that when we were pitching it around, people wanted more violence, they wanted Wolf Creek, but we weren't going to give them that. You have to just find the right partners that understand the project, and the mission statement, and once you've got the right collaborators, it should fall into place, really, from there." ON AVOIDING TURNING HANNA AND LIV'S EXPERIENCES INTO WOLF CREEK "We were looking at the type of behaviour that's the entry point for sexual violence — like how do we prevent it from ever getting to that point? And so the film is about trying to figure out when you can speak up for yourself, when you can say no before the behaviour crosses the line — just when it's dancing on the line. So the aim of it is to prevent that sort of behaviour from ever happening. If we can be a little more responsive a little earlier, then maybe we can create safer spaces for everyone. Essentially, this is the conversation that we want to have." ON PUTTING THE ROYAL HOTEL'S AUDIENCE IN HANNA'S SHOES "That's what they do really have to. They do that with The Assistant, too. I think a lot of these, it's about the behaviour that gets missed in big spaces like that where there's a lot going on. It can be someone creepy, but other people wouldn't really notice it — but Hanna's character would. So it's giving audiences a glimpse of what it's like to be that person behind the bar who's a little worried and feeling a little uncomfortable and not sure how to express it." [caption id="attachment_927984" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Royal Hotel[/caption] ON A QUINTESSENTIAL AUSSIE PUB AS A SETTING, BACKDROPPED BY THE AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE "When you're coming to a project, it's about what's the right environment for some drama and some tension, and I think an Aussie pub is a great one. Not only is it for the interior of this pub, and the claustrophobia of it and all these men — there's 60 miners in that pub and two young women serving them, just that kind of dynamic is interesting to me — but also the exteriors, and this idea that they're in the middle of nowhere in the remote setting adding to that tension, and the isolation making it feel a little terrifying. It just was a really great starting point for a story. The isolation really adds to the tension. It's nice to keep a lot of the action in the bar, and to feel that claustrophobia of being kind of trapped in there. But also the idea, that even though they're not claustrophobic outside, it's somehow just as terrifying but for very different reasons. The contrast of the two spaces was really interesting to play around with. I haven't made an Australian film since film school, so it was nice, if I'm going to make an Australian film, to take advantage of the uniqueness of the landscape and play around with that." ON GETTING KYLIE MINOGUE'S 'THE LOCOMOTION' ON THE SOUNDTRACK "It was about going 'if you're going to teach some foreigners about Australia, where do you begin?'. And so Kylie Minogue, swimming in a water hole, seeing a kangaroo — ticking a few of those boxes." ON POTENTIALLY MAKING A THIRD FILM WITH GARNER TO ROUND OUT A THEMATIC TRILOGY "We would love to do a third one. We've just got to figure out what that should look like and how to get that done, and how to make sure it's a little different. If we're going do it again, we need to play around with it. I mean, hopefully we get to get a chance to do it. It'd be great to work with Julia again." ON WHAT GETS GREEN EXCITED ABOUT A PROJECT "It has to feel like something — often it's something like a gut instinct, and it's something that I feel in my bones, like a story that needs to be told. And often it's because I haven't seen it elsewhere, or it's something that I want say. With The Assistant, we were looking at the larger picture — the news was focusing on Harvey Weinstein and we were saying that we want to look at something wider, like at the systemic problem, sexism in the industry, and how that creates an unsafe workspace and contributes to all of that sexual violence. So then with The Royal Hotel, it was looking at, I guess, just looking at my own discomfort in some of those spaces and how we can voice our concerns a little more, and kind of ripping that apart. Generally, it's just something that gets me interested in something [where] I feel like 'oh, I want to say something here'. That's the starting point, and then there's a lot of people involved. It takes a village to get a movie to the screen, so it changes as it goes, but often I go in with the kernel of an idea that I think is interesting." The Royal Hotel opened in Australian cinemas in November 23. Read our review. Images: Neon / Transmission / See-Saw Films.
UPDATE: MARCH 13, 2020 — Due to the current global situation surrounding COVID-19, My Chemical Romance has decided to postpone their trip Down Under. And, as a result, Download has cancelled its Sydney and Melbourne festivals. Ticket holders will receive a full refund — including booking and payment processing fees — and organisers are currently working with My Chemical Romance and Deftones to schedule separate headline shows in 2020. We'll let you know when these are announced. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. The black parade is coming back to Australia, with the freshly reunited My Chemical Romance heading to Sydney and Melbourne for the 2020 Download Festival. The US group went its separate ways in 2013, but it seems you just can't keep this 00s emo outfit apart. Just last week, MCR announced that they're literally getting the band back together, and, after selling out their first reunion gig in Los Angeles quick smart, they're taking the show on the road. If you're keen relive your angsty emo teenage years and catch Gerard Way and co eight years after they last came to our shores for the 2012 Big Day Out, you'll need to head to the aforementioned festival — MCR aren't doing any sideshows on this tour. But, when Download hits Melbourne's Flemington Showgrounds on Friday, March 20 and Sydney's Parramatta Park on Saturday, March 21, the headliners will have plenty of support, including a heap of other rock and heavy metal standouts from the past few decades. They include Deftones, Jimmy Eat World, Clutch and Ministry — aka some heavy hitters in the worlds of alternative metal, punk-influenced rock, hard rock and industrial metal. Those keen on melodic metal will want to flock to Sweden's In Flames, while Scotland's Alestorm will get silly with pirate metal (yes, that's a thing), and Italy's Lacuna Coil will play their brand of rhythmic metal. And, no matter your tastes, Mongolia's The HU promise something you probably haven't seen before: hard rock combined with traditional Mongolian throat singing. Basically, if it's a type of rock or metal (of the musical kind), you'll find it on Download's lineup. Testament, Carcass, Baroness, New Year's Day and Venom Prism help round out the overseas contingent, while Australia is represented by local punk legends Bodyjar, plus Hands Like Houses, In Hearts Wake, Ne Obliviscaris and Clowns [caption id="attachment_749356" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deftones[/caption] DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2020 FIRST LINEUP ANNOUNCEMENT My Chemical Romance (only Aus shows) Deftones Jimmy Eat World Clutch (only Aus shows) Ministry In Flames Testament Alestorm (only Aus shows) Carcass Lacuna Coil (only Aus shows) Hands Like Houses In Hearts Wake The HU Baroness Ne Obliviscaris Bodyjar New Years Day Clowns Venom Prison SKYND Thornhill Disentomb Stand Atlantic Plini RedHook Dregg Download 202o was scheduled to hit Melbourne's Flemington Showgrounds on Friday, March 20 and Sydney's Parramatta Park on Saturday, March 21. Top image: My Chemical Romance performing by NBSTwo via Flickr
The BrisStyle team is a rather busy bunch. A few times a year, it puts on twilight markets in King George Square, but that isn't its only regular event. If you're particularly after a treasure trove of handmade goodies — and who isn't? — it hosts another opportunity to browse and buy that's dedicated to exactly those kinds of objects over at the Queensland Museum. And, because it's that time of year, it's putting on a Christmas version of the latter. Fashion, art, jewellery, homewares — if someone's been using their nimble fingers to make it, then you can probably trade your hard-earned cash for their hard work. In fact, there'll be a long list of artisans — normally around 60 locals, actually — selling their wares. And, while you're shopping, you'll also be able to grab a bite at the onsite cafe — and live tunes from local musos usually provide a soundtrack. The BrisStyle Handmade Christmas Markets take place on Saturday, December 21, so that's when you can take care of your gift-buying needs. Head along from 10am–3pm, with it all taking place in the Queensland Museum's whale mall. Image: BrisStyle.
Whether you love his work, get frustrated by his off-screen behaviour or just don't know what to make of him, Shia LaBeouf can't be accused of being boring. His resume spans everything from family sitcoms, Transformers flicks and lyrical road trips into America's heartland, to performance art at the Sydney Opera House and live-streamed anti-Trump protests — as well as marathoning his own movies in public, and wearing a paper bag on his head at the Berlin International Film Festival. His output and antics can only be described as eclectic, and, as much as anything can fit that pattern, LaBeouf's next project seems to. Called Honey Boy, it's an autobiographical film written by and starring the actor. Delving into his past as a child star, LaBeouf doesn't play himself, but instead steps into his father's shoes. Laying bare his own tumultuous ups and downs during his childhood and young adult years, LaBeouf grapples with his fame, mental health and addictions — while getting Noah Jupe (Wonder, A Quiet Place) and Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea, Lady Bird, Boy Erased, Ben Is Back) to play versions of his on-screen alter-ego, called Otis, at different ages. Directed by first-timer Alma Har'el, the film also features FKA Twigs, Natasha Lyonne, Clifton Collins Jr, Maika Monroe and Martin Starr. While, on paper, Honey Boy certainly sounds as if it could go either way — as many of LaBeouf's stunts have over the years — it premiered at Sundance back in January to rave reviews. And, as the just-released first trailer shows, it doesn't hold back when it comes to delving into trauma. The same can be said of LeBeouf's performance as his dad, and of Hedges' impersonation of LeBeouf as a teenager. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2jNCFjALSA Honey Boy doesn't have a release date Down Under as yet — we'll update you if and when that changes.
Burger lovers of Brisbane, rejoice — yet another place selling your favourite food is posed to join the city's culinary lineup. If you've ever grabbed a burg on the Gold or Sunshine coasts, then you'll be familiar with the newest joint heading to Newstead. Yep, Betty's Burgers is finally coming to Brisbane. Don't go donning your best stretchy pants and flocking to the inner-city outskirts just yet, though. An opening date is yet to be announced, but setting up a retro burger barn that'll make you feel like you've been whisked back to '50s America takes time. Of course, good things come to those that wait, as your mum always told you. That includes five types of burgers, including classic, crispy chicken, pork belly and shroom selections. And there's also the massive stacked concoction that combines a good old' beef burg with its mushroom sibling. If your stomach is already grumbling, that's understandable; Betty's meat-and-bread (and veg-and-bread) fare tastes as good as it sounds. Plus, it's not just the titular fare that's the attraction here, thanks to their Shake Shack-style frozen custard desserts known as 'concretes', which are available in everything from peanut butter brittle to hot fudge doughnut flavours. For more information about Betty's Burgers' Newstead store, keep an eye on their Facebook page.
When trouble strikes, tragedy gets a catchphrase: "life goes on." You might hear it from well-meaning acquaintances, or even loved ones. As accurate as those words may be, however, the reality is far less simple. In the case of Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) in Manchester by the Sea, pain and heartbreak become like a second skin, numbing him to the outside world. As he goes about his job as a Boston janitor he encounters complaints, advice and even awkward romantic advances, and yet he can barely bring himself to react. "You're rude, you're unfriendly, you don't say good morning," his boss tells him after a complaint is lodged. Lee remains unfazed. Manchester by the Sea tackles heavy subject matter as Lee is forced to return to his hometown and take custody of his teenage nephew (Lucas Hedges) after the death of the boy's father (Kyle Chandler). From this relatively simple dramatic premise, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan (Margaret) masterfully pieces together fragments of past trauma, present malaise and future uncertainty, delivering a complex portrait of a haunting but rarely acknowledged reality. Whether we've charted the same journey as Lee or endured ordeals of our own, most of us are broken in our own way. Surviving that pain, rather than fixing it, is perhaps all we can really ever hope to manage. Lonergan stresses this idea in a number of different ways. Stellar performances from Hedges and Michelle Williams (as Lee's ex-wife) seethe with inner turmoil. The snowy Massachusetts setting, meanwhile, provides further obstacles. And then there's the filmmaker's approach to filling in Lee's backstory, via flashbacks that slip into the main storyline so seamlessly that it takes a moment to realise that the timeline has changed. Of course, that's how everyday pain manifests itself. It coats life with an extra layer, even when things otherwise appear fine. It intrudes seemingly at random, even when you're not expecting bad memories and heartache to rear their ugly head. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Affleck broods, frowns and furrows his brow. Don't think he's just serving up his own version of Sad Affleck though. Here, despair runs much deeper than a bad interview about a superhero flick. Conveying the deep-seeded misery that can only come from years of suffering and regret, Affleck plays Lee with naturalistic agony of the festering variety, while also providing a glimpse at something more. An exploration of grief and loss, Manchester by the Sea is undeniably bleak. But don't be surprised by the movie's sense of humour, either. Laughter is a necessary cathartic device even in the darkest of situations, and here it makes the drama feel that much more real. Combined with the movie's commitment to laying bare inescapable inner struggles, and Lonergan's latest proves both devastatingly relatable and sincerely affecting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsVoD0pTge0
To explore the concept of the frontier, aka the area that lurks around borders, you really do have to break a few boundaries. Like staging an exhibition across two galleries, splitting one show into site-specific sections and weaving everything around the city's own watery dividing line (yes, we're talking about the Brisbane river), perhaps? That's Frontier Imaginaries in a nutshell — and it really is just the start of the creative, contemplative extravaganza. No Longer at Ease takes over IMA, while The Life of Lines settles into the QUT Art Museum, with both bringing together leading Australian, indigenous and international artists to reflect upon barriers, divides, and their physical, digital, geographical and cultural impact. Of course, work by the likes of Gordon Hookey, Tom Nicholson, Megan Cope, Rachel O'Reilly, Alice Cresicher and Wendelein Van Oldenborgh is only part of the puzzle too, and not just because the two-year effort will eventually grow and evolve, complete with an offshoot in Jerusalem. Courtesy of an accompanying event program, convening to talk, read, meet and learn is just as pivotal. That's how you really do eradicate limits, after all. Image: Gordon Hookey, HISTORY is his story, MYSTERY is my story (A History according to me)', 2016 and ongoing, oil on canvas.
It is no secret that Brisbane loves breakfast, and it is definitely no secret that Brisbane loves booze. So it is mighty lucky that you can eat, drink and be merry well before noon at an overwhelming number of Brisbane's favourite breakfast destinations. Whether you're chasing the hair of the dog or simply love a mid-morning mimosa, revel in the beauty of the boozy brunch this weekend. Remember, it's 5 o'clock somewhere (we think). Top image: The Balfour Kitchen.
It's worrying the way we deride films aimed at an older audiences as simply being a Best Exotic Marigold Hotel facsimile designed to snare seniors, given how we largely ignore the fact that the majority of mainstream cinema over the past 30 years has been made for 12-year-old boys. Philomena, with its poster depicting a smiling Judi Dench alongside a stoic Steve Coogan, will no doubt be dismissively lumped in with this crowd. It is, however, a million miles away from the likes of Best Exotic (which, for the record, was actually rather good). Based on a true story, Philomena follows ex-political spin doctor Martin Sixsmith (Coogan), who, in an attempt to revive his journalism career, chases the "human interest story" of Philomena (Dench) an elderly woman searching for her long-lost son. In flashbacks, we see the younger Philomena (Sophie Kennedy Clark) as she becomes pregnant out of wedlock, and is forcibly kept in servitude by nuns, who then sell her son to a wealthy couple. As the pair investigates, the truth behind the forced adoption becomes all the more shocking. Coogan, who not only portrays Sixsmith but also co-wrote the screenplay, strikes a perfect tone with such sensitive material. The revelations are powerful and honest without being gut-wrenching; the comedy is welcome and consistent without being inappropriate. It's a remarkable juggling act, directed beautifully by Stephen Frears, who atones for recent disasters Lay the Favorite and Tamara Drewe. Coogan's sardonic Northern charm makes Sixsmith a compelling lead, and his relationship with Dench's Philomena is wonderfully developed. It's Dench who is the real standout here. At this point in her career, she could easily get away with sleepwalking through roles, relying on her undeniable presence to carry her performances. But as in 2006's Notes on a Scandal, she creates a character unrecognisable from her previous roles. Philomena is pleasant, vague, forceful and compellingly well-rounded. Dench's energy and attention to detail elevates this film to something even more remarkable. The depiction of the Catholic structure both past and present is one of the most fascinating elements of Philomena. It's caused controversy, with many accusing the film of being anti-Catholic. To make such an accusation, however, fundamentally misses the point, and excuses the crimes committed in the name of the church. The film does not shy away from Philomena's piety or Sixsmith's atheism, and argues strongly in favour of both. Sixsmith is deeply compassionate without religion, whilst Philomena embodies the ideals of Christianity that the Church and its representatives so often and so demonstrably forget. Disinterested in a sanitised "I'm okay, you're okay" message, the film manages to extol the best elements of both atheism and Christianity whilst unrelentingly and unapologetically shining a light on the darker side of organised religion. It is truly impressive stuff. Be not fooled by the marketing materials, which make the film look like an aged-up version of The Trip with Judi Dench in place of Rob Brydon. (Although, thinking about it, that would be brilliant.) Philomena is a terrifically made, entertaining work that stands head and shoulders above many of the films being forced upon us this Christmas. See it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=rD8f9kn7D2U
Jackie, by Chilean director Pablo Larrain, is a captivating and unflinching portrait of private grief amidst one of history's most public tragedies. It is, as the name suggests, neither a film about JFK's assassination nor about JFK himself, but rather a study of first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and the unfathomable burden of responsibility she both assumed and had thrust upon her in the immediate aftermath of her husband's murder. Portrayed by Natalie Portman with uncanny fidelity, Jackie's story is told via a series of flashbacks as she gives her account of events to Pulitzer-winning journalist Theodore H. White (listed in the credits merely as 'the journalist' and played by the ever reliable Billy Crudup). White's handwritten notes of that interview were made public the year after Jackie's death, and reveal the extent to which she insisted upon oversight of the final copy to ensure JFK's legacy was honoured – including her emphasis of the 'Camelot' theme that would forever become synonymous with the late President's name. Much like Clint Eastwood's recent Sully, the most dramatic moment in Jackie – her husband's assassination – is reserved for only the final stages of the film. For the bulk of the running time, Larrain instead chooses to focus squarely on the minutes, hours and days that followed the Dallas shooting. Gone for the most part are the glitzy ballrooms and lavish parties, replaced by hospital waiting rooms, cramped bathrooms and the back seat of a hearse. The choice is well considered, demonstrating precisely how alone Jackie was in those trying days, save for Robert Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard) and her faithful White House social secretary Nancy Tuckerman (Greta Gerwig). Jackie was a woman in a man's world, and everyone of them felt entitled to tell her what to do, where to go and, most importantly, how to feel. That in that environment, under those conditions, she still found the strength to stand up to so many is a testament to Jackie's character, and forms the bulk of the film's thematic line. Portman's performance is phenomenal, an extraordinary embodiment of the physical and aural cues that made Jackie such an icon in her own right. It's such a remarkable likeness, in fact, that the film does on occasion veer dangerously towards a mere showcase of Portman's abilities at the expense of advancing the story. Thankfully, these moments are short lived and quickly forgotten. Portman has honoured her subject with a fine portrayal that, like Jackie herself, refuses to hide behind artifice – an unflinching, bare bones turn that only grows stronger the closer the camera comes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZTXv5NpgaI
Imagine that, for some strange reason, you're only allowed to watch films starring one particular actor. Then, imagine that you're forced to watch them over and over again. You can pick any performer that you like — but we all know there's just one right answer to this. Who wouldn't want to keep enjoying flicks starring Bill Murray? In fact, it sounds like a scenario out of one of his movies. No, it's not Groundhog Day at Catchment Brewing Co — it's A Very March, although you'll find the star's joyfully repetitive rom-com with Andie MacDowell on the lineup not once but twice. That's on purpose, obviously. History doesn't just repeat itself for Phil Connors, Rita Hanson and Ned Ryerson. Every Wednesday night until April 5, you'll also find a selection of Murray favourites, including the golfing comedy classic that is Caddyshack. Plus, $15 doesn't just get you a mighty fine night at the movies, but also some truffle popcorn and one of the brewery's craft beverages.
Galleries and museums don't just display art; they also compile a record of our creative history. Every piece they put on show or add to their collection tells a tale, while adding to a broader narrative about artistic ideals, themes and techniques. And as the years pass by, that story only grows. In the case of the University of Queensland Art Museum, their 3700 items certainly have plenty to say about current issues and contemporary art. With the institution celebrating its 40th birthday, they're sharing a selection of 130 works that have inspired many a discussion — and are bound to start a host of new discussions. Indeed, if there's one thing beyond the Tower: UQ Art Museum – 40 years and counting is guaranteed to do, it's provoke plenty of thoughts about the changes and challenges of the art of the past, as well as the path ahead for artists in the future. That includes a reflection on the changing role and place of the art museum itself, and — thanks to its moves around campus — not just in a philosophical sense, either. Image: Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano, The Surround (video still), 2009, single-channel digital video, 16:9 ratio, black and white, sound, duration 00:02:05, edition 3/5. Collection of The University of Queensland, purchased 2010. Reproduced courtesy of the artists and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney.
If you live in Brisbane, you've heard all about the city's connections with Asia; we are the home of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, after all. Since 2013, the BrisAsia Festival has also been on that list, paying homage to the culture of our neighbours. As always, this year's program features another mix of traditional and contemporary Asian arts, channelled into events across Brisbane. And while one of the unmistakable highlights will serve up a feast for your stomach — yes, that'd be Wandering Cooks' Dumpling Day — that's just the beginning of the fun. Where do we start? Work your way through Asian films such as In This Corner of the World and A Silent Voice, attend a lunar new year rooftop party screening of Studio Ghibli's The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, dress up for a cosplay-filled summer shindig at the South Bank Piazza or head to Brisbane Powerhouse for an intimate club night. Or, learn how to paddle a dragon boat, enjoy a tai chi lesson, embark on a food tour of Sunnybank, listen to traditional Japanese instruments or take part in a Mario Party battle.
He's the horror and thriller author responsible for bloody proms, haunted hotels, possessed cars, sewer-dwelling clowns and spooky animal resting grounds, not to mention literary stalkers, depression-era death row prisoners, a town plagued by unexplained fogginess and another trapped under a dome. Indeed, since coming to fame with Carrie back in the 70s, Stephen King has never proven unpopular — but the world sure loves the writer's work right now. The viewing world in particular seems to adore King at the moment, with page-to-screen adaptations of his books popping up thick and fast. In 2019 alone, a new version of Pet Sematary hit cinemas, as did IT: Chapter Two, and The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep is dropping next month — while In the Tall Grass recently arrived on Netflix. On the small screen, Mr Mercedes is up to its third season, Castle Rock is just about to start unfurling its second and Creepshow's first recently landed. Next year will see three more TV shows join them, too, all based on King's books — and if you like the author in murder-mystery mode, you might want to add The Outsider to your viewing list. HBO's addition to the fold is a ten-part mini-series taking inspiration from King's 2018 novel of the same name, which focuses on the gruesome death of an 11-year-boy. Little League coach Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman) is suspected of the shocking murder, with his fingerprints all over the scene; however, video footage places him 60 miles across town at the time the crime went down. Unravelling just what happened is a task for police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn), who's also mourning the death of his own son. When nothing seems to add up, he brings in unconventional private investigator Holly Gibney (Widows and Bad Times at the El Royale's Cynthia Erivo) to help, despite him professing to have "no tolerance for the unexplainable". In case you're thinking that this all sounds like one of King's more straightforward tales, "an insidious supernatural force" is also involved according to the official HBO synopsis — it is called The Outsider, after all. Mendo, Australia's favourite current acting export, also produces the show, as well as seemingly getting a rare chance to play something other than a blockbuster baddie of late (see Rogue One, Ready Player One and Robin Hood, for example). As for recent Emmy directing winner Bateman, he executive produces and jumps behind the lens on the series' first two episodes. Check out the first teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I03MAkQ_OyM The Outsider starts airing on Sunday, January 12 in America — we'll update you once viewing details for Down Under have been announced.
If brutal honesty, passionate angst and extraordinarily affecting personal songwriting is your jam, rejoice the return of Martha Wainwright to Australia for a massive, 12-date national tour. Part of a large, fractured musical family, it was perhaps fitting that Martha made her first big splash with 'Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole', a song at once heartbreaking and defiant, laying bare her difficult relationship with her father in an extraordinarily public way. And her forthcoming album, Come Home to Mama, continues this deeply personal approach to music, inspired by the six-month period in which she gave birth to her first child and lost her mother — legendary Canadian folk singer Kate McGarrigle — to cancer. But it's not all doom and gloom. Over the years Wainwright has established herself as a compelling and engaging performer with an extraordinary voice, one that will have you in tears one moment and tapping your feet the next. It won't be an easy night, but it could be an amazing one. 31 May – The Tivoli, Brisbane 1-2 June – Byron Theatre, Byron Bay 6 June – Sydney Opera House 8-9 June – Live n Cookin' @ Lizotte's, Newcastle 13 June – Theatre Royal, Hobart 14-15 June – Recital Centre, Melbourne 16 June – Memorial Hall, Leongatha (VIC) 20 June – Dunston Playhouse, Adelaide 22 June – Astor Theatre, Perth Tickets for the Sydney Opera House show are on sale on Friday, April 12, at 9am. More ticketing information here. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pX-bIr8dr6U
UPDATED, Friday, March 15, 2024: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor's Version) is available to stream via Disney+. Just like a great music documentary, an excellent concert film isn't solely about existing fans. That's still true when a movie arrives in a sea of friendship bracelets, focuses on one of the biggest current singers in the world, and perhaps the largest and most devoted fandom there is can be seen screaming, dancing and crying joyfully in its frames in a 70,000-plus drove. As the shows that it lenses were, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour was a financial success before any Swifties experienced their version of heaven. Swift's onstage journey through 17 years of tunes sparked ticketing mayhem both as a concert and a cinema release that captures close to every moment. The Eras tour is a billion-dollar entity, with the self-produced film that's spreading it further than packed stadiums a box-office bonanza since it was announced. The 169-minute-long movie is also a dazzling spectacle that neither dedicated Swifties nor casual viewers will be able to easily shake off. When Swift told the world that she never misses a beat and she's lightning on her feet in possibly her best-known pop song, everyone should've believed her. Long before 2014 earworm 'Shake It Off' gets a spin in the 1989 segment of The Eras Tour, she's proven those words true in an indefatigable onstage effort. "Can't stop, won't stop moving" describes her efforts and the film, which is as energetically directed by Sam Wrench (Billie Eilish Live at the O2) and edited by a six-person team (with Max Richter's Sleep's Dom Whitworth as its lead) as it is performed. And, for anyone that's sat through Valentine's Day and Cats and found them hardly purring, it gives Swift the cinema presence that she's been trying to amass here and there — The Giver and Amsterdam are also on her resume — for over than a decade. Watching The Eras Tour doesn't just feel like watching a concert, but a musical spectacular in its vast grandeur, complete with the lead to match. Filmed over three concerts at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium in August — closing out the first US leg on a global excursion that'll have notched up nearly two years of performances when it finishes in Toronto in November 2024 — The Eras Tour goes for both scale and intimacy, the holy duo of the genre. Concert flicks can't just passively watch on. One of their biggest aims: gifting audiences perspectives on the show that they can't see in-person, including spanning far and wide plus near and close. So, this one takes in the massive crowd and the just-as-enormous stage design from above. It also gives Swift's dancers and band their due. And, it, sees the star herself get sweaty, and the changing gleam in her eye depending on what which track calls for. As bouncily spliced together, each image reinforces an inescapable takeaway: everything about this tour is huge, from the cast and crystal-clad costumes to the sets and setlist, and also Swift's own stamina and chameleonic showmanship. Live and as recorded for posterity, nine of the singer's ten studio albums earn their own era (the one that doesn't, her 2006 self-titled debut, receives a track during the late acoustic section). Cue pinballing between records and styles, appearances and themes, and ballads and pop. Accordingly, songs from 2019's bright Lover sung in a bejewelled bodysuit give way to gold fringing to go all country-pop with 2008's Fearless, then orange cottagecore and witchy black cloaks for 2020's Evermore, a one-legged and snake-clad black-and-red catsuit for 2017's Reputation, and so on. Eras onstage has been exhaustively documented since opening in Arizona in March, making knowing which tracks Swift will sing, outfits she'll wear, moss-covered cabins she'll sit atop and glistening pools she'll seem to dive into scarcely a surprise not only to the Swiftiest of Swifties, but to anyone who hasn't been able to avoid the tour coverage — but in a production this immense and evolving, a "what'll happen next?" vibe still pulsates. Sans accompanying footage — interviews, behind-the-scenes glimpses and commentary are absent, with just snippets of bloopers dotted through the closing credits — The Eras Tour lets the show and tunes do the talking, plus Swift's chatter when she addresses the adoring crowd. By the time that she mentions how fun it is to segue through sounds and looks, and how it's made possible due to her fans (so: popularity and sales), the film has already made that plain, too. An ode to reinvention sits at the centre of Eras onstage and on-screen, and to longevity as well. When 'Look What You Made Me Do' enlists Swift's dancers in clear boxes, each decked out like various versions of the superstar across the years, the Barbie nods aren't subtle. 2023 is clearly the year of cinema celebrating women being everything that they want to be, which thrums at the heart of two key Swift details: why she's kept striking a chord, including with her youngest aficionados who see her as an array of role models, and her savvy knack for transformation. To the delight of The Bear's Cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, No Hard Feelings), 'Love Story' gets a whirl early. Usually Swift-agnostic The Eras Tour viewers can consider the hit TV dramedy's fictional character their spirit animal while watching. This presentation is as shiny and shimmering as everything that its star wears, and as irresistible as the catchy 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' refrain and slinky 'Vigilante Shit' beat as a result. Getting to the why of it all, Swift briefly explains the tour's concept; "what are you gonna do, play for three hours?" she says she was asked about touring post-pandemic after not yet taking Lover, Evermore, fellow 2020 release Folklore and 2022's Midnights on the road. The swarm of phone-wielding concertgoers before her cheer, of course. Understanding why Eras has had everyone talking since is as simple as letting The Eras Tour wash over you. A music film veteran with movies about everyone from Mary J Blige and Blur to Brandi Carlile and Lizzo on his resume, director Wrench knows that his task with The Eras Tour is multifaceted. His latest concert flick needs to spy the macro and the micro; to feel like it's on the ground and unveiling a money-can't-buy experience; and to see its star as everything and an everywoman whether she's singing about falling in love, searching for a soulmate, heartbreak, revenge, empowerment and identity — and playing guitar or piano. That it does this so seamlessly is no minor feat. Swift isn't a stranger to bringing her shows to the screen, as seen with The 1989 World Tour Live and Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour, but Swifties will consider The Eras Tour their Stop Making Sense, The Last Waltz and Amazing Grace. For everyone else, all almost three hours of the film is still enchanting to meet. Top image: TAS Rights Management, Trafalgar Releasing.
First things first: no, Artisan hasn't fashioned its own take on the reality TV show that once beamed a certain wannabe US presidential candidate into our living rooms. Instead, the gallery has turned over its space to thirteen creatives that were once apprentices in fields as varied as shoemaking and blacksmithing. If those areas all sound like traditional crafts and trades that have come under threat from modern mass production methods, that's because they are. That's part of the point of the exhibition. By showcasing the creations of talented leather makers, woodworkers and more, The Apprenticeship shines a spotlight on the skill and style evident in their work. Of course, highlighting the training aspect of pursuing handcraft-oriented careers is also on the agenda, hence the choice of name. As you peruse their efforts, you'll discover their stories, learn how they got to where they are, and consider the future of everything from sign-writing to brick-making.
